"Whether the main city of the Garden is taken down by the Spider Tower and the Oasis or not, the panic-stricken Garden Army is definitely shrinking its forces and will not send a commander to recover resources. This is our chance..."
Ash's analysis was very accurate. He searched for resource points according to the garden map, which were full of garrisoned creatures and a large amount of resources that had not yet evacuated.
He also noticed that the amount of resources in the garden area was almost two or three times that of other areas. There are two possibilities: the resource harvesting cycle of the garden is two or three times that of other forces, so the resources are piled up into mountains; or the collection efficiency of the social creatures under the garden is two or three times that of other forces, so they can collect several times more resources in the same cycle.
After plundering several resource points, the scales of truth gradually tilted towards the second possibility.
Compared with the social creatures in other areas, the social creatures in the garden area did not have a significant improvement in combat power, but their tactical vision and cooperation ability far exceeded those of their compatriots in other areas. When Ash and his friends wanted to lure the social creatures to the narrow terrain to block the door and kill them, they actually hid in the mine and refused to come out, and even looked at Ash with contempt, with a contemptuous expression of "how cunning the beasts are".
Not only that, Ash also discovered that the mine in the garden area was much more complicated than other areas, with many connections inside. If they were not careful, they would be attacked from all sides.
Although they were able to win in the end, the danger of the battle was almost several times that of an ordinary resource point. Moreover, they were three magicians, and they could stand back to back to defend all directions when necessary. If a single magician challenged such a resource point, he would inevitably be caught in a dilemma and might even be beaten to death, or even eaten by social creatures. It would take more than half a year for his soul to recover.
The most dangerous time was when Ash and his team killed the monsters at the entrance and entered the branch of the mine, other social creatures actually tried to collapse the mine to bury them alive. If it weren't for Sword Princess's "Blood Moon Shattered Lake" to directly kill through the rubble, they would have really died in there.
There was absolutely no way these complex forks could have been formed naturally. When Ash and his companions turned back to check, they could still see obvious traces of claw marks in the walls.
All signs indicate that the intelligence of the social creatures in the garden area is very close to that of magicians. This intelligence can be used in combat and naturally in production. It is natural that the resource growth rate in the garden area is several times that of other areas.
“…No wonder the works “Golden Rain Observations”, “Second Secret Records”, and “Under the White Bull” all mentioned the hypothesis of “virtual civilization”. They probably suffered a great loss from the garden creatures, so they strongly believed that the virtual creatures have the intelligence to establish civilization…”
While verifying the connection between what she saw in the virtual world and the real data, Sonia fed the killing intent sword spirit with 'unfaithful silver'. The killing intent spirit is a dual-faction spirit of swordsmanship and mind, with a ratio of about 6:4, so feeding the killing intent spirit with the high-level mind material 'unfaithful silver' also has an effect.
The red-clothed magic spirit holding two swords suddenly burped, and a second blood-red wing grew on his back. A black and gold shawl appeared on his red clothes, and his two swords turned into more ferocious scimitars. His appearance changed from a gloomy man to a feminine woman.
"The Killing Sword has advanced to the second wing." Sonia looked at the magic spirit in front of her and shook her head: "It's not like me. My eyes are not so cold."
Generally speaking, any native humanoid spirit summoned by a sorcerer on his own will be of the same gender as the sorcerer (except when the sorcerer has a misconception of gender), and will also have the sorcerer's own characteristics in appearance.
When an alien spirit is promoted by a magician, its gender will also become closer to that of the magician. If a spirit is promoted by magicians of different genders, its gender will really change.
"Congratulations Sword Princess!"
"Congratulations."
"Thank you." Sonia retracted the sword of killing intent and smiled at them: "I have picked up all the essences I need. I will go back to the car and wait for you."
Looking at the retreating figure of Sword Lady, Ash and Diya felt like adventurers who saw the evil dragon Khorne sleeping. Their tense mood finally relaxed and they couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.
They even felt their legs going a little weak, and they had to lean against the wall and hide in the shadows where they couldn't be seen from outside.
Diya couldn't help but ask: "Viewer, why did Sword Princess suddenly become like this, do you have any clue?"
"Like you, I only met Sword Lady in the virtual realm. I have the same clues as you do." Ash's eyes flickered.
Diya didn't doubt it. Although Jian Ji suddenly became very scary, she didn't target the viewer. And as the viewer said, they only spent a short time together in the virtual world. If the viewer made Jian Ji angry, would she not notice it? It couldn't be that the viewer made Jian Ji angry in reality, right?
"Then do you have any solution, Observer?"
“Not yet.”
"Then I have a solution, and I need your cooperation."
"Is this true?" Ash was so excited that he wanted to hold the witch's shoulders, but he put his hand down again: "No problem, I will definitely cooperate!"
"That's no problem." Diya said, "My plan is this. First, I will sit in the front seat of the sports car."
“Hmmmm!”
"Then, go sit in the back row with Sword Princess."
"Hmmm... hm?"
"Finally, we will wait until the exploration of the virtual realm is over tonight. If Sword Princess is still in a bad mood tomorrow night, we will repeat this operation."
“Hmm…Hmm??”
Ash was confused: "What kind of solution is this? It still doesn't solve the Sword Princess problem!"
"Anyway, my problem has been solved. It's your problem if you haven't solved it." Diya waved her fist viciously: "You have already agreed to cooperate. If you lie, you will be punished... and Sword Princess is your operator. You have to take responsibility! Anyway, don't come and sit in the front row, or I will beat you!"
After saying this, the witch slipped away, not giving Ash any chance to regret.
Even though she was tricked by the Witch, she was right. If there was a problem with Fiora, then Ash was the person most responsible. Fiora was his operator, not the Witch's operator. More importantly, Ash knew in his heart that he was the source of the chaos that caused Fiora's sudden change in personality.
Although the miracle of 'treating others with sincerity' cannot see through one's inner thoughts, from the changes in Sword Princess' expression, Ash knew that she had guessed most of it based on his inner fluctuations.
In this regard, Ash did not dare to underestimate women's intuition. Back in junior high school, when he had some feelings for his deskmate, his mother keenly noticed it and nipped it in the bud (after all, his grades dropped because of it). Not to mention that Sword Lady's intuition is a personal skill "Dark Eyes" that is even recognized in "Aurora's Sorcerer's Handbook".
Moreover, Ash knew that he couldn't hide it. Just like when he confessed to An Nan, he would recall the colorful moment in Sword Lady's eyes when she was frozen in the black and white silence. When he faced Sword Lady now, his tongue seemed to still linger on the perfect blending of the past few hours ago.
He can deal with departments calmly, pass the buck in reports, and even fool project leaders with a sincere face, but he can't apply this to his love life. If his love ability is one tenth of his work ability, he wouldn't have to work overtime and go to the movies alone.
What should I do, what should I do... Honestly, Ash himself was panicking. He had never seen Fiora so angry. Even when he had arranged a sincere summoning ceremony for Fiora before, she had never been as scary as she is now.
Moreover, Sword Lady would never give him the chance to be alone with the Witch before, but just now she left without looking back. This desperate mentality made Ash suspect that she would lose her temper at any time.
The most abnormal thing was that Sword Princess acted as if she knew nothing and nothing had happened. She continued to fight and adventure as usual, explaining the virtual world, and even...
…seems to be more polite and responsible than before.
After recovering the mercury materials from the resource point, Ash looked at the Witch and Sword Lady sitting in the front and back rows. He took a deep breath to ease the tension in his heart and carefully sat in the back row.
Sword Lady glanced at him, and Ash instantly felt a heavy stone in his heart. If Sword Lady got angry, he would sit back in the front row even if he had to risk being beaten by the witch. However, Sword Lady said nothing and looked ahead calmly. Ash breathed a sigh of relief and opened the virtual map to continue exploring the garden area.
"team leader."
Not only Ash, but even the witch was shocked. Ash responded quickly: "What's wrong?"
"We are still short of two maps, one of which is the Oasis. Now that the Oasis and the Spider Tower have united, if we attack the Garden City, the Oasis Spider Tower Army will surely appear together. This is our chance." Sonia pondered, "Compared to resources, the Oasis map and the commander's manual are more important, right?"
Speaking of business, Ash explained seriously: "We collect maps to find the Seven-Colored Tail, but it is too unreliable to put all our hopes on the Seven-Colored Tail. And we collect resources to upgrade the peripherals of the sports car, so that we can move around the battlefield more confidently and safely in the main city war in the future."
"I see." Sonia suddenly realized: "If we still can't find the Seven-Colored Tail in the end, we can take advantage of the Necromancer and the sports car to gain an advantage in the main city war, so the sports car is more important. Speaking of which, although the Bullet Star Warrior is very suitable for me, it is not suitable for you... Witch, if you were designing it, what kind of troops would you want?"
Diya got excited when talking about this: "First of all, melee damage is enhanced, and the armor doesn't need to be thick. As for the special skills of the troops, I need two most. One is to restore armor by killing other units, and the other is to speed up the movement speed. Facing a duel and a melee, my combat strategies are completely different. In a melee, I usually use hydrographic lines to pull the enemies together to cause chaos, so speed becomes very important..."
Ash also participated in the discussion with great interest. As early as when he knew about the arms system, he had imagined an arm that suited him, just like when you play a card game, you can't help but design it yourself. Although the balance must be terrible, the problem is that there is no need to pay attention to balance in reality.
They happily arrived at the next resource point. Diya, who was still thinking about the fourth type of soldiers, got off the car. At this time, Ash hesitated for a moment and said, "Witch, go in and try to lure the monsters out first."
"no problem!"
After Diya disappeared into the mine, Ash adjusted his mood and mustered up the courage to say to Sword Princess seriously: "Sword Princess, I'm sorry."
The atmosphere on the road just now was cheerful and lively, and Fiora was talking and laughing, and did not avoid communicating with him. Ash felt that Fiora might not be so angry anymore, so he struck while the iron was hot and explained everything to Fiora.
He already had several plans prepared in his mind, and he could react whether Sword Lady was angry, dissatisfied, or took direct action.
However, Sword Lady's response still exceeded Ash's expectations.
"Why do you want to apologize to me?" Sonia asked with a smile.
Ash was startled. "Because, because you look very unhappy, but in reality I am -"
"Whatever happens to you in reality has nothing to do with me." Sonia looked towards the mine and said calmly, "I can neither see nor hear anything, let alone interfere."
"And I should be the one to apologize. I was wrong to suddenly use a miracle to test you just now." She was full of apologies: "Let me put myself in their shoes. If someone suddenly tested me like this, I would definitely be very sad and angry. I am really sorry."
Ash immediately said, "I don't blame you."
"But I still feel sad, just like you felt sad when I tempted you." Sonia met Ash's gaze: "Only when you feel as sad as the other person, it can be considered an apology."
"You don't have to treat me so solemnly. After all, we are just teammates in the virtual world and partners in adventure. We can't control each other's lives in reality. We just need to fulfill our responsibilities in the virtual world."
"Besides this, we don't have and can't have any other relationship." Sonia stretched out her finger and touched Ash's hand: "Look, I can't even feel your body temperature."
"The witch is out. It seems that the intellectual creatures here are also smart and will not be seduced out. Let's stop chatting here."
"Let's go, Captain."
Looking at Sword Lady's back, Ash stayed there in silence for a long time before following her.